June 21, 1998

Christians are called to open our lives to a higher power. And the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of Jesus' promise that his disciples would be given supernatural power by which they would be able to do the things he asked them to do. Jesus did not ask his followers to love people, forgive others, feed the hungry, help the poor, and change the world by virtue of their own strength alone. Jesus knew the limitations of being human. So he promised us a higher power. The power of the Holy Spirit.

And in the book of Acts, we see how the early Christians began to explore this power and incorporate it into their lives. In fact, a great deal of New Testament writing is devoted to helping Christians learn how to be open to, and how to nurture, and how to responsibly use the power of the Holy Spirit. Last week, we took a look at Acts 2:42-47which identifies three settings within which spiritual power may be found.

One is by letting your intellect be engaged by the stories of Jesus. Last week we talked about how the early Christians devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles. You see, all of our preconceived ideas about life, death, human nature, the nature of God and faith are pretty much shattered when you start exploring the teachings of Jesus. Why, the last become first, the weak become strong, the losers become winners in this amazing, upside-down Gospel. You can't seriously read the stories of Jesus without your mind being shaken to its core, and your intellect opened to a brand new world. And as followers of Jesus over the centuries have let the Gospel engage them intellectually, they've found power coming into and flowing out of their lives.

A second setting for spiritual power described in this passage is by relational engagement with others. Luke uses some exciting language to describe the early fellowship of Christians. He says they were together. He says they held all things in common. He says they sold their belongings to provide care for those in need. He says they practiced good will toward all the people. And I think it doesn't really surprise us that, in the process of actively loving each other, in the process of giving themselves away, in the process of being people of good will toward others, they found power. After all, how many times have you and I done some good deed, shared some good gift of ourselves and felt that we got more out of the giving than what we gave away? There is spiritual power in connecting ourselves to others through faithful love.

And then there's a third setting for spiritual power. It's our focus for today. Luke tells us the early Christians attended to the breaking of the bread, and the prayers...and day by day...praising God..."

Taken together, this is worship, and there is great power in it!

Soren Kierkegaard once told a parable about a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. With these wings there was no place the ducks could not go, there was no God-given task these ducks could not accomplish. With the wings God had given them, they could soar into the presence of God himself. Shouts of "Amen" were quacked throughout the duck congregation. And at the conclusion of the service, the ducks left the duck church, commenting about what a wonderful message they had heard - and then they waddled back home.

Notice that this is a parable. Kierkegaard intended it as a gentle way of exposing in his day the loss of the meaning of worship. And its a point that needs to be made in our day as well, for far too many of us go to churches on Sunday and think the key component is the atmosphere in which we sit, or the music which we hear, or the message to which we listen. But Kierkegaard offers us a different slant, showing us that worship is not about any of those things really, but rather about stretching our wings to soar into the presence of God.

Many of us have never truly experienced such worship. At least, not in a worship service!

Gordon Cosby, the founder and pastor of the Church of our Savior in Washington, D.C., tells about preaching at a mid-week Lenten service somewhere up in my native New England. Of course, we New Englanders are famous for our lively worship. (Snore) Someone once called us God's frozen people. Well, the service that night was particularly dull and uninspiring. Nobody sang the hymns; nobody smiled; nobody reacted. The only thing that moved, he said, were the offering plates. Afterward, Cosby and his wife felt really depressed. They returned to the room the church had reserved for them in a roadside inn not far away. Interestingly enough, the room was directly above the inn's busy tavern. And they couldn't help but compare the sounds of laughter, music and camaraderie in the tavern below with the grim lifeless exercise in religion they had just experienced at the church. Gordon Cosby says, "I realized that there was more warmth and fellowship in that tavern than there was in that church. If Jesus of Nazareth had his choice, I think he probably would have gone to the tavern..."

It really is outside of the church that most of us have come closest to the soaring nature of worship.

Sandy and I were sitting in the stands one crisp October night at a high school football game. We were both pretty nervous because the regular kick-returner for our local high school's team was injured and our son Peter - an underclassman - was getting his first crack at the position. Playing on a team that always lost, usually by a score of about 65 to nothing, our kick-returners got plenty of practice during the game. And each time old Pete took the ball back on his own goal line that night, something bad happened. Once he dropped the ball and had to fall on it to keep it from being recovered by the other team. Another time, he caught the kick on the run and within three steps got clotheslined by an opposing player. Got another one and returned it a few yards before realizing that all his blockers were already on the ground and now it was him against eleven. Not a good result! And after each disastrous attempt at a runback, we'd see old Pete on the sidelines getting yelled at by the coaching staff. And Sandy and I would squirm and pray that the kid who usually returned kicks would have a miraculous healing and get back into the game.

But he didn't. So out trotted old Pete again. And the kicker kicked, and the ball tumbled end over end, and Pete bobbled it a bit but reeled it in, and took a few steps forward...and cut right...and left...and all of a sudden, he was in the open...and...

Suddenly, the woman I was sitting next to, my wife who is as quiet as a church mouse and twice as shy, leapt to her feet and screamed in a shrill voice that could be heard in heaven, "RUN, PETER, RUN!"

And as the kid threw a little jink at the kicker and streaked past him toward the end zone, the crowd erupted with a thunderous roar, and this woman beside me, my quiet-as-a-church-mouse wife, could be heard above them all, shouting and whooping and screaming and whistling and clapping and crying and cheering!

I'll bet you've experienced the same sort of thing at one time or another in your life. If not with your own children, certainly with the Lady Vols!

Now listen to the words of Psalm 47 on the subject of worship:

It's a slightly revised version of Psalm 47. But if you sit down and study it closely, you'll see that it's faithful to what the text says.

I think I would define worship as the pouring out of your heart to God.

The book of Acts teaches us that to be empowered by the Spirit, we must let God engage not only our intellect, not only our relationships with others, but just as importantly - we must let God engage our emotions.

The problem is that, long ago, our western culture became uncomfortable with the emotional dimension of our lives. And that neurotic culture produced a religious orientation that has stolen from us the truth about biblical Christian worship, and replaced it with series of incorrect myths about worship behavior.

For instance, the Bible says to worship God with a shout, but our culture says shut-up. Can you imagine that? People actually go around today telling others that worship is supposed to be quiet! Shhhhh! What a strange idea! In what Bible do you find that? Some may cite Habakkuk 2:20 which says, The Lord is his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him." But that passage is really about the prophet demanding from God some revelation about how the Lord is going to restore Israel. And God's reply is, "Shut up, Habakkuk, everything's under control!" It's not a passage about worship. Others may cite Psalm 46:10 which reads, "Be still and know that I am God, says the Lord." However, this is actually a call to those who are surrounded by frightening circumstances to become still so they can discern God's presence in the eye of the storm. It's not a passage about worship either. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time to be silent, and there are times for silence in worship. But worship as a whole is not a silent sport.

The Bible also invites us to clap! It's one of the most ancient expressions of worship! But we live in a culture that says it's inappropriate to clap in church. Oh? Is it really? Who among us thinks they have an insight on this subject that nullifies the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and two thousand years of Christian history? And to whom is it inappropriate to clap? To God? Or to us? Surely not to God, because on page after page of his Word, God invites us to clap and indicates that he likes it when we do!

The Bible also says shout for joy, which by the way, is an expression of hearty laughter. Listen to Psalm 126: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them!' The Lord HAS done great things for us, and we rejoiced." Many of us don't realize it, but the word rejoice means to laugh and to shout for joy! God loves laughter!

In fact, one of the great stories of the Bible is about how Abraham and Sara are told by the angel that they're going to have a baby. Remember the story? They're about a hundred years old and they're going to have a kid!! And this is before Viagra! Well, Abraham and Sara react to this exciting news by falling into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. What a funny thing! Having a baby at our age.

Well, nine months later, they're not laughing anymore! There they are, up at two o'clock in the morning, watching re-runs of Lassie while trying to quiet this screaming, colicky newborn. Just then, God comes along and says, "Hey, whatcha got there?"

Abraham snaps back, "You know darn well what we got here!"

God says, "I want you to give your baby a name. I want you to name him 'Laughter' because you laughed and laughed and laughed when I told you about this last year."

So they named the baby Isaac which, in Hebrew, means laughter.

And a good friend of mine, a Jewish rabbi, once told me, you don't get the full impact of the name until you realize that the sense the word carries is, He who laughs last, laughs best!

Now, I'm not trying to suggest that we Christians at Tellico Village Community Church ought to convert our worship services into raucous moments of uncontrollable shouting, clapping and laughing. But what I am trying to get you to see is that all of these worship behaviors - and others like them - are expressions of the heart, expressions of emotion. And the reason we feel so uncomfortable with them is not really because they are inappropriate, but rather because we are uncomfortable exposing the FEELINGS that underlie them.

You see, the reason we avoid pouring out our hearts to God in worship is probably the very same reason my father could never cry and why many of us men can't cry. It's the same reason some of us can't achieve true intimacy in marriage. Its the very reason you can't bring yourself to tell your children you love them and you're proud of them even when you know you need to. It's the reason you can't apologize even when you know you're wrong. In fact, it's the same reason some people suffer ongoing abuse from others without ever being able to express their outrage and anger

"God, I will let you touch my intellect with new thoughts to consider. I will let you teach me the ethics of living in relationship with others. But God, don't you dare mess around with my feelings!"

Why?

I think because we are afraid. Afraid of who and what we are behind the veil of our emotions. Weak. Broken. Vulnerable. Needy. Sinful. Not in control.

And God understands. God knows us better than we know ourselves. And God offers us safety, and power, and salvation.

But we have to open the door to the room hidden behind our emotions. The place where we really live.

Worship opens the door.

I've been working for awhile in my own life at developing a discipline of trying to express my feelings to God. For instance, I try to bring him the wonderful joy I feel when I cross the Fort Loudon dam and see the beauty of the lake against the majestic backdrop of the Smokies. Isn't that a glorious sight on a nice clear day? Sometimes I burst into How Great Thou Art! as I drive along in the car, much to the chagrin of the other drivers! Sometimes I just sigh and say, "Thank you for this gift, Lord!" I also try to bring God the confusion and consternation I feel when things aren't going well and it seems like my life is about to come unraveled. "I am SO FRUSTRATED, Lord! I don't know what to do! Show me the way!" Sometimes, I just sob out my sorrows to God and offer my tears, especially when someone I love is facing a hard time. Often, I lay in bed at night, when everything is quiet and still, and I picture Jesus on the cross, looking at me with love in his eyes, giving his life for me. And I whisper to him, "I love you Jesus. I love you."

Worship can happen at any time. In any place. Whenever, wherever and however you pour out your heart to God, worship occurs! And when it does, the Spirit of God seeps into the deepest places of your soul and touches you with God's amazing, transforming power.

Dear friends, go this week and worship. Don't waddle, but soar into the presence of God! Express your feelings - shout, clap, sing, sigh, weep, dance, laugh...!

Pour out your heart to God, and receive the Holy Spirit.